For optical fibers provided with one or more polished end faces—and potentially also with connectors—at the factory, the mechanical cutting and polishing process is time and material-intensive. Sufficient performance and economies of scale are typically only achieved with bulk processing of many fibers simultaneously, adding to in-process inventory costs, and decreasing the opportunities for custom manufacturing. Accordingly, a generally applicable method for non-contact cutting and polishing of optical fiber is desirable. Some laser-based fiber cutting and polishing methods exist, but typically lack general applicability, being best suited to producing perpendicular flat or angled flat end face surfaces. It is desirable to have a non-contact cutting and polishing method well suited to producing domed or rounded end face surfaces as well as off-axis rounded or domed surfaces.
The present disclosure provides such a method. According to one aspect of the present disclosure, a method is provided of fabricating an optical fiber having a polished end face, the method including providing an optical fiber having an axis; positioning and maintaining the axis of the fiber, at a specific location along the fiber, at a fixed position; and forming a laser processed end face on the individual fiber at said specific location by irradiating the individual fiber at said location with one or more laser beams while moving the one or more laser beams in a rotational direction around the fiber. The method may be applied to a jacketed fiber and/or a fiber on a reel. Resulting fibers are also disclosed.
Variations of the methods and devices of the present disclosure are described in the text below and with reference to the figures, described in brief immediately below.